NGITI NI YOHAN
(Yohan’s Smile)

A lot of friends have been asking me to write an article on how the guitar piece “Ngiti ni Yohan” came to be. Here’s the story...
I write music based on what I see and hear and feel and can understand and also from matters which I am attempting to comprehend.
I wrote “Ngiti ni Yohan” based on what I feel and heard and saw and understood and matters that I am still learning to comprehend… My dear Yohan’s magical smile.
I remember when Yohan was still a small bundle of joy. I was trying my best to finish a musical composition and he just kept climbing on my back, tickling my nose, tugging at my earlobes, performing all sorts of antics, and doing his best to distract me so that I’d play games with him. But his Tatay was hell-bent on completing what he was working on.

Yohan, then, started on a new tack. He knows that I get easily distracted upon hearing dissonant notes while slaving on a musical piece. Yohan, started humming. Just a note in the beginning (Mi), then joined by a few more notes later on. He was trying to be dissonant but he just can NOT!

Anyway, Yohan tried his best in singing discordantly. From Mi, he added a Do sharp and then a Ti and then another Mi. Mi, Do sharp, Ti and Mi.. Again and again and again. He didn’t realize that I was warming up to the germinal musical idea that he was offering me.
Finally, I stopped what I was doing and he climbed off my back and sat face to face with me, staring with eyes full of expectations and lovable mischief. It was then that I asked him, “What song are you humming?” Yohan shrugged and said “Wala lang, Tatay!” (It’s nothing, Father!) and then gave me the sweetest smile which I will never ever forget! It was a smile any father would die for!!!
As usual, Yohan won. And as we played games, four notes were beautifully resonating inside my head. Mi, Do sharp, Ti and Mi!
From those four notes, I developed the music for “Ngiti ni Yohan”. After weaving the initial part of the piece, I attempted to write lyrics for it, but discovered that no words can paint the picture that I wanted to show to my son.
After finishing the piece, I was inspired to work on the “Yohan Sketches” which consists of Classical Guitar works inspired by and dedicated to my son. But there will be other opportunities in “unveiling” the other pieces.
Yohan’s smile is more heart-warming now that he has grown to be such a fine, gentle, talented and smart young man. He has become a 15 year-old gentleman who is about to enter his freshman year in college this coming June. He will soon leave Rica and me.
For now, this father would like to close his eyes and go back to the times when his little Yohan would climb on his father’s back, tickle his father’s nose, tug at his father’s earlobes, perform all sorts of antics... showing his Tatay who the real boss is.